Elon Musk told his 180 million followers on Saturday that he’s officially launched his own political party on Saturday.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” he posted on X, less than 24 hours after polling users on whether the US needs a new party. “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he said.
The decision came just one day after President Donald Trump signed a tax-and-spend bill into law. That decision reignited tensions between the two.
Elon, who backed Trump with hundreds of millions and even served under his administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and close confidant, had warned about the bill repeatedly. But Trump signed it anyway.
The president also has plans to yank all federal subsidies going to Elon’s businesses, a number that runs into the tens of billions. Elon’s answer was simple: launch a party, cut ties, and go to war.
Elon says he’ll fund takedowns of lawmakers
Elon had said that he would spend his own money to oust lawmakers who voted for the bill. Now, he’s doing it under a new party banner. Elon wants full control. And that’s already freaking out the GOP.
Republicans are worried that the public feud between him and Trump could wreck their chances of holding onto congressional seats in the 2026 midterms. Elon posted on X that:
“Increasing the deficit from an already insane $2T under Biden to $2.5T. This will bankrupt the country.”
CBS News asked Brett Kappel, an election attorney with decades of experience, what it takes to actually build a party like this. “Only the richest person in the world could make a serious effort at creating a new American political party,” he said. Elon’s wealth makes it possible, but that doesn’t make it easy.
Every state has its own ballot access rules, and most of them are built to block third parties. Kappel said political parties are “creatures of the states,” which means Elon has to navigate 50 separate systems. In places like California, it’s brutal.
To even be recognized as a party there, you either register 0.33% of all voters, or collect 1.1 million signatures. After that, you’ve got to keep up those numbers or win 2% of the statewide vote just to stay qualified.
Filing across states demands time and money
And it’s not just California. Every other state has its own rules and thresholds. Elon will need to get each version of the America Party approved individually, then request an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission to be taken seriously at the national level.
None of this happens quickly. Legal teams will be all over it. Democrats and Republicans can, and definitely will, fight every signature. The lawsuits alone will cost a fortune.
The current legal system favors the two-party system and works to block third-party entries. Even for someone like Elon, getting recognized in all 50 states before 2026 is unlikely. “It might be doable for Musk to get a few favored candidates onto the ballot in certain states,” attorney Kappel said, but building a full national party “would take years.”
Still, Elon thinks he doesn’t need 50 states. He said on X that a party could “laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.”
That’s enough, he believes, to control the vote on major legislation. And he may be right. If the America Party candidates hold the deciding votes, Elon wins by default. He doesn’t have to take over. He just has to disrupt.
But also, this isn’t the first time someone’s tried to build a third party, but the track record is ugly. The Green Party and the Libertarian Party have been around for decades. They still fight for ballot access, still push state-by-state, and still struggle to reach even single-digit national support.
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